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<refentry id='amtapetype.8'>

<refmeta>
<refentrytitle>amtapetype</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
&rmi.source;
&rmi.version;
&rmi.manual.8;
</refmeta>
<refnamediv>
<refname>amtapetype</refname>
<refpurpose>generate a tapetype definition by testing the device directly</refpurpose>
</refnamediv>
<refentryinfo>
&author.dustin;
&author.jlm;
</refentryinfo>
<!-- body begins here -->
<refsynopsisdiv>
<cmdsynopsis>
  <command>amtapetype</command>    
    <arg choice='opt'>-h </arg>
    <arg choice='opt'>-c </arg>
    <arg choice='opt'>-f </arg>
    <arg choice='opt'>-p </arg>
    <arg choice='opt'>-b <replaceable>blocksize</replaceable></arg>
    <arg choice='opt'>-t <replaceable>typename</replaceable></arg>
    <arg choice='opt'>-l <replaceable>label</replaceable></arg>
    &configoverride.synopsis;
    <group choice='opt'>
      <arg choice='plain'><replaceable>config</replaceable></arg>
    </group>
    <arg><replaceable>device</replaceable></arg>
</cmdsynopsis>
</refsynopsisdiv>

<refsect1><title>DESCRIPTION</title>
<para><emphasis remap='B'>amtapetype</emphasis>
generates a tapetype entry for Amanda by testing the device directly.</para>
</refsect1>

<refsect1><title>OPTIONS</title>
<note><para>The options for &amtapetype; have changed in version 2.6.1</para></note>
<variablelist remap='TP'>
  <varlistentry>
  <term><option>-h</option></term>
  <listitem>
<para>Display the help message.</para>
  </listitem>
  </varlistentry>
  <varlistentry>
  <term><option>-c</option></term>
  <listitem>
<para>Run only the hardware compression detection heuristic test and stop.
This takes a few minutes only.</para>
  </listitem>
  </varlistentry>
  <varlistentry>
  <term><option>-f</option></term>
  <listitem>
<para>Run amtapetype even if the loaded volume is already labeled.</para>
  </listitem>
  </varlistentry>
  <varlistentry>
  <term><option>-p</option></term>
  <listitem>
<para>Run only the device property discovery.
</para>
  </listitem>
  </varlistentry>
  <varlistentry>
  <term><option>-b</option><replaceable> blocksize</replaceable></term>
  <listitem>
<para>block size to use with the device (default: 32k)</para>
  </listitem>
  </varlistentry>
  <varlistentry>
  <term><option>-t</option> <replaceable>typename</replaceable></term>
  <listitem>
<para>Name to give to the new tapetype definition.</para>
  </listitem>
  </varlistentry>
  <varlistentry>
  <term><option>-l</option><replaceable> label</replaceable></term>
  <listitem>
<para>Label to write on the tape (default is randomly generated).</para>
  </listitem>
  </varlistentry>

  &configoverride.varlistentry;

</variablelist>

<para>
If a configuration is specified, it is loaded and used to configure the device.
Note that global configuration parameters are not applied to the device, so if
you need to apply properties to a device to run amtapetype, you should supply
those properties in a named <emphasis>device</emphasis> section.
</para>

</refsect1>

<refsect1><title>EXAMPLE</title>
<para>Generate a tapetype definition for your tape device:</para>

<!-- .RS -->
<literallayout remap='.nf'>
% amtapetype -f /dev/nst0
</literallayout></refsect1>

<refsect1><title>NOTES</title>
<para>If the device cannot reliably report its comprssion status (and as of
this writing, no devices can do so), hardware compression is detected by
measuring the writing speed difference of the tape drive when writing an amount
of compressable and uncompresseable data.  If your tape drive has very large
buffers or is very fast, the program could fail to detect hardware compression
status reliably.</para>

<para>Volume capacity is determined by writing one large file until an error,
interpereted as end-of-tape, is encountered.  In the next phase, about 100
files are written to fill the tape.  This second phase will write less data,
because each filemark consumes some tape.  With a little arithmetic,
&amtapetype; calculates the size of these filemarks.</para>

<para>All sorts of things might happen to cause the amount of data written to
vary enough to generate a strange file mark size guess.  A little more
&quot;shoe shining&quot; because of the additional file marks (and flushes),
dirt left on the heads from the first pass of a brand new tape, the
temperature/humidity changed during the multi-hour run, a different amount of
data was written after the last file mark before EOT was reported, etc.</para>

<para>Note that the file mark size might really be zero for whatever device this
is, and it was just the measured capacity variation that caused &amtapetype;
to think those extra file marks in pass 2 actually took up space.</para>

</refsect1>

<seealso>
<manref name="amanda.conf" vol="5" />
</seealso>

</refentry>